Affordable housing project on hold

NORTH PARK  A proposed $56 million affordable-housing project on El Cajon Boulevard has been postponed after potential funding sources dried up amid an anemic economy.

The Boulevard at North Park, planned as a 175-unit complex between Alabama and Florida streets, would have provided housing to those earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area’s median income. It was touted as a way to revitalize a key segment of El Cajon Boulevard through redevelopment, but critics derided the project as being too large for the area and for setting aside space for at-risk youths.

Community HousingWorks, a local nonprofit specializing in affordable housing, came up “several million dollars short” of what was needed to move ahead, said Dave Gatzke, the group’s project manager.

“The bottom line is every affordable-housing complex requires a combination of local and state support,” Gatzke said. “It just became apparent that the local resources were not available.”

The North Park Redevelopment Project Area Committee recommended the nonprofit’s application for Proposition 1C funds, said Michael Lengyel, a project manager for the redevelopment agency. Approved in 2006, Proposition 1C authorized the sale of $2.85 billion in state bonds for affordable housing.

Community HousingWorks was awarded $9.5 million in Proposition 1C funds and went before the North Park redevelopment committee this spring to discuss local funding for the project, Lengyel said. But local funding wasn’t available.

“These are really, really tough times for local government,” Gatzke said. “We just couldn’t bring it together.”